Indian couple arrested in Milan for murder
Venice: An Indian couple was taken into custody for allegedly murdering an Iranian woman and dumping her body, stuffed in a suitcase, in a Venetian canal. The Indians, Rajeshwar Singh, 29, and Gagandeep Kaur, 30, shared a Milan apartment with the victim, Mahfab Ahadsavoji, 29, an Iranian designer, whose body was discovered last week off the island of Lido. The Indian pair allegedly strangled Ahadsavoji to death after she refused a sexual advance by Singh, said ANSA. They then stuffed her body inside the suitcase which had roller-wheels and took it by train to the northern city of Lecco with the intention of tossing it into Lake Como, police said. After determining there were too many witnesses in the area, the pair opted to take the body to Venice instead, again by train, police said. A Venice taxi driver told police they paid him 500 euros for the return trip to Milan. According to reports, the couple undertook a 20-hour, 400-mile round trip to Venice riding on three trains and a vaporetto with the suitcase in their attempt to find a proper place to dump the body. Police said the pair initially denied involvement, but their movements with the suitcase were allegedly captured by security cameras at the Venice train station, prompting a confession. The victim’s nude body was identified by fingerprints, said the news agency. A known costume designer in Iran, Ahadsavoji was in Milan for a two-month course at the renowned Academy of Fine Arts of Brera. According to Rai News, Gagandeep was the girlfriend of Rajeshwar. The two worked in Milan hotels. They have been charged with the murder. (IANS)
Delhi Lit Fest begins Feb 7
New Delhi: There will be a session on Persian publishing, tributes to Hindi writer Rajendra Yadav and a tete-a-tete with Brazilian author Bernardo Carvalho at the second Delhi Literature Festival (DLF), beginning here Feb 7. The annual festival will be inaugurated by M. Veerappa Moily, union minister for petroleum and natural gas, at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts on Friday. The festival will end Sunday evening with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in conversation with journalist Barkha Dutt. The sessions at the festival are on “Digital Revolution and Literature”, “Sex and the City: Erotica in Literature”, “Literary Criticism: Now and Then”, “The Art of Playwriting: A Discussion” and “Love and Relationships in Contemporary Writings”. Apart from these, there will be book launches, plays and a musical show. Brazilian author Carvalho, who is a playwright and a journalist, will talk about how he shifts from writing fiction to writing objective news reports. (IANS)
Students think of catching Dawood for leading luxurious life
Patna: Three Bihar school students, who thought up a hare-brained scheme to earn a huge amount of cash as reward if they could catch gangster Dawood Ibrahim, have returned home chastened after running out of money. The three class 9 students ran away from school last Saturday with the dream of leading a life of luxury with the reward money for catching Ibrahim, Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj said today. Quoting the accounts of the three, the SSP said they first went to Mokama in Patna district and from there reached Kolkata. “In Kolkata they somehow realised that the idea was impractical after running out of money and returned home,” Maharaj said. The parents of the three school boys had registered a missing complaint with the Digha police station. Station House Officer of Digha police station Manoj Jha said that the students narrated that they had read a lot about the international fugitive on the internet and thought of leading a luxurious life with the reward money after giving up studies. (PTI)
Bangladeshi cargo ship sinking in Sunderbans
Kolkata: A Bangladeshi cargo ship which set sail from here with 12 crew members was sinking after developing engine trouble on Sunday night in the Korankhali river in the Sundarbans in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas, police sources said today. The ship, M V Haji Saheb, which had left Kolkata port and was bound for Mongla port in Bangladesh had 12 crew members on board, the sources said. “Technical teams have moved in,” Additional Superintendent of Police (Hqs) Debasmita Das, said. (PTI)